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Saturday, June 25, 2016

Dear
friends, I've dropped everything to write
you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to
write
insisting - begging! - that you fight with everything you have in you
for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.
(Jude 3)

Do
you sometimes feel that you just have to write? Do you see your
writing a gift that God has entrusted to you? Melanie Stiles, a life
coach in blue jeans, brought a heaping helping of encouragement and
scripture to her audience on Saturday at our June meeting. Stiles
charged her audience to view God’s gift of writing as a ministry
tool for each to share lavishly. After decades of working in the area
of non-fiction writing, Stiles was quick to offer some extremely
practical advice in the way of application for her message. “Walk
through any other door the Lord opens!” Here are a few of Stiles
suggestions:

Concoct
plays for your church, family or group to act out.

Blog
for your church or group (and create a team to include other
writers).

Make
and deliver a list of reasons you love or appreciate someone or
his/her efforts.

Create
and publish a family or group newsletter.

Write
letters for those who don’t have physical or language abilities.

Walk
through any other door the Lord opens!

Stiles
went on to give us four steps to be taken:

Don’t
be tempted to hide your words.

Practice
boldness…we’ve all been scared sometimes when we say yes.

Let
the Lord know you are ready to be used by Him. He’s a gentleman
and won’t force you.

And
God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always
having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every
good work.

Finally
Stiles closed the meeting by asking to pray the writer’s prayer
over us:

Lord,
I come to you expressing gratitude for the gift You have bestowed
upon me. I thank you for trusting me to use it to my full potential
for Your glory. Open my eyes, my heart, my spirit and my mind, that I
may see Your intentions. By the strength of Jesus Christ, I know I am
able to overcome any insecurity or obstacle that would keep me from
doing Your will! I surrender my gift to You and Your purposes. In
Jesus’ name, Amen.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Several WOTS members new and upcoming releases. Actually, this active group of ours has had several releases all year, and I haven't been nearly as diligent as I should've been announcing them. I'm going to try to do better from now on (note I said "from now on," with apologies to those who had releases before June).

Saturday, June 4, 2016

You’re probably better off if you just don’t think about how many people you compete against when it comes to marketing your novel. We live in a world where everyone and his uncle can not only write a book but publish it. And they do.

Now we can start by disregarding the hacks—the truly awful writers who wouldn’t know a prepositional phrase from a hockey stick. They’re not your competition. But that still leaves quite a few—the writers who care and have a good story and hired an editor and quite possibly secured a publicist to get their work up and over the stacks of books clamoring for attention.

So … how do you stand out? Well, it helps to do everything I mentioned. But if you really want to be heard above the noise, stop trying to be heard above the noise. If you try to get attention the same way everyone else does, you’re just another cheap noisemaker in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

Let’s say, for example, you’re in Times Square and across the way, you see your ideal reader. All these authors stand between you and her. If you could just get her attention, you know she’d pick you. You wave your book in the air. But everyone is waving his book in the air. You shout her name. As do thousands of other voices.

It’s time to look closer. Who is she? Why is she there? What does she need? More importantly, what does she need that only you can provide? Will your story offer her hope or give her direction or help her rest? If so, that’s what you tell her. But don’t make her come to you. You go to her.

The same holds true when you send out your media kit to a blogger or a radio host or a journalist. Do your research. Find out what they want. Go to them. If you can meet a need while at the same time nudging your book in their direction, you’ve done a good job.

What it comes down to is this: When someone opens your email, she's not wondering how she can help you. She's wondering how you can help her. It may sound selfish, but that’s Marketing 101.

Raise your book above the crowd, and your dream reader might forget it’s New Year’s Eve because she’s at home engrossed in your book.____________________Award-winning author Sharyn Kopf published her first novel, Spinstered, in 2014, then followed that up with a nonfiction version titled Spinstered: Surviving Singleness After 40. Besides writing and editing, she’s developing a speaking ministry to women. During her spare time, Sharyn plays the piano, makes the best fudge ever, and watches too much HGTV. She lives in Bellefontaine, Ohio, just five minutes from her favorite people in the world—her family. Visit her on Facebook.